BRISBANE, Australia, CMC – West Indies captain Jason Holder struggled to find positives following his side’s embarrassing 10-wicket loss to a youthful Cricket Australia XI on Saturday but singled out the fielding and left-hander Darren Bravo, as the bright spots during the four-day encounter.
The 24-year-old all-rounder said the Windies caught everything that came their way while Bravo’s half-century in the first innings had been a quality knock in trying circumstances.
“On the positive side, we did catch the ball when it came to us [and] the fielding was generally pretty good so we just need to keep that going and improve on batting and bowling,” Holder said.
He added: “We bowled well in patches and the innings Darren Bravo played in the first innings was very good for a senior batsman and he spent some time [at the crease].
“A few other batsmen got starts but didn’t carry on so I think it is important that we convert those starts, spend some more time in the middle and look to apply ourselves a bit more.”
West Indies were dismissed for 243 in the first innings at Allan Border Field, with Bravo top-scoring with 51 and all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite getting 47.
Cricket Australia XI, a side with an average age of 21 and comprising six players on first class debut, piled up 444 in reply and then bundled out the visitors for 210.
The hosts were left with a mere ten runs to win.
The defeat was a huge blow for the Windies, especially coming five days before the first Test in Hobart, and Holder conceded the Caribbean side had not been up to scratch and needed to drastically improve.
“It’s definitely a tough loss and it’s definitely not the start we were looking for on this tour,” he lamented.
“We’ve definitely got some areas to improve on. We didn’t spend enough time in the middle as batsmen and when we bowled, I don’t think we were as disciplined as we should have been so we definitely need to tighten up.”
West Indies face Australia in the first game of the three-Test series in Hobart starting next Thursday.